MacBook Air = a Mod waiting to happen?

Posted:
in Current Mac Hardware edited January 2014
Long time reader... first time poster.



Consider these additions to the MacBook Air:



replace with 7200 rpm drive

replace 2GB of ram for total of 4GB



latter add bluetooth keyboard & mouse, and a 24" monitor.



4 GB memory and the fast hard disk = VMWare fusion and unity, run windows app and mac apps



Not too concerned with the battery... an electrical outlet is never to far away. I had a dell 420 lattitude (12 incher) and never really needed to swap the battery.



1.8 GHZ cpu is sufficient, surprisingly, I never really max it for a any long period.



Portability with the above MODs and you've got one sweet notebook comparable to a daily workstation.



I can take my work home and ditch the 17" behemoth (which comes with a backpack!)



Waiting for someone to open up this laptop up to see if MODs can be made.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 13
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by ncx5 View Post


    Long time reader... first time poster.



    Consider these additions to the MacBook Air:



    replace with 7200 rpm drive

    replace 2GB of ram for total of 4GB



    latter add bluetooth keyboard & mouse, and a 24" monitor.



    4 GB memory and the fast hard disk = VMWare fusion and unity, run windows app and mac apps



    Not too concerned with the battery... an electrical outlet is never to far away. I had a dell 420 lattitude (12 incher) and never really needed to swap the battery.



    1.8 GHZ cpu is sufficient, surprisingly, I never really max it for a any long period.



    Portability with the above MODs and you've got one sweet notebook comparable to a daily workstation.



    I can take my work home and ditch the 17" behemoth (which comes with a backpack!)



    Waiting for someone to open up this laptop up to see if MODs can be made.



    The answer is no. Sorry.
  • Reply 2 of 13
    ncx5ncx5 Posts: 2member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by audiopollution View Post


    The answer is no. Sorry.



    guessing then its one piece motherboard? If so go ahead and delete my post as it is futile.
  • Reply 3 of 13
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by ncx5 View Post


    Care to elaborate?



    The 2 GB of RAM is soldered to the mainboard and there are no empty slots.



    There aren't any 7200 RPM, 1.8" drives available.



    Your only upgrade options are: a bigger 4200 RPM ATA 1.8" HD (160 Gig drives are available on the market), or a 1.8" SSD drive (available at exhorbitant prices, up to 256 GB).
  • Reply 4 of 13
    lorrelorre Posts: 396member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by audiopollution View Post


    Your only upgrade options are: a bigger 4200 RPM ATA 1.8" HD (160 Gig drives are available on the market), or a 1.8" SSD drive (available at exhorbitant prices, up to 256 GB).



    Yes but aren't the 160Gig drives a bit thicker? I doubt they'd still fit then...
  • Reply 5 of 13
    reganregan Posts: 474member
    Once the technology catches up and the prices come down, it looks like Apple wants the Airbook to be entirely Solid State and wireless.



    This is a glimpse of the future folks. Much like when Apple released the first imacs without a floppy drive, and people FREAKED. Now look at the imac, and floppies have gone the way of the dinosaur.



    Solid state and no optical drives are the future of laptops. We live in a wireless, digital downloadable word, and Apple is trailblazing here. This is just the tip of the iceberg.



    It's gonna take time.



    That being said, I'm gonna buy the macbook right now. Although I travel ALOT and love the INSANELY unbelievably thin Airbook...the HD is just way too small and pricey. So I don't mind waiting. I'll use a macbook and check back in with the Airbook in a couple of years. I am sure by then they will offer bigger and cheaper SSDs. Its all good. :-)



    For others, it will be enough. And I will look with slightly envious eyes at them in airports with the airbook on their laps.
  • Reply 6 of 13
    Regan,



    You made some good points, and for the most part, I am with you. I remember when the iMac debuted, and almost everyone I knew were saying things like, "What?!? No FLOPPY DRIVE?!!!!" and now, as you have stated, they are extinct.



    However, I do not believe that we are headed down that path as soon as you may be thinking. Yes, iTunes is EXTREMELY POPULAR, and I know that millions of people download all of their music from iTunes and now you can "rent" movies and so on. But there are a couple of things to think about.

    Apple has not created or recognized a better technology to replace optical drives, as they did when they dropped the floppy and only used the optical drive. All they have done is set it up so that you can use an OPTICAL DRIVE from ANOTHER COMPUTER. While this is inventive and a good solution for MBAir users, don't think that the optical drive is going away any time soon.



    Even if Apple and other companies wanted to start offering media, i.e. movies, via a download service, most users would become frustrated with trying to download an HD Movie in a reasonable amount of time.
  • Reply 7 of 13
    vineavinea Posts: 5,585member
    The only mod I see happening is the ModBook folks making a new tablet based on the MBA vs the MB for a thinner form factor. That's iffy given they only just got modbook production ironed out and the real potential that Apple will release a multitouch tablet which would kill their business.
  • Reply 8 of 13
    serranoserrano Posts: 1,806member
    Can't happen. The ram is soldered and afaik it will only accept a single platter 1.8" drive.
  • Reply 9 of 13
    jeffdmjeffdm Posts: 12,951member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by audiopollution View Post


    The 2 GB of RAM is soldered to the mainboard and there are no empty slots.



    The RAM is not as difficult to handle as the hard drive. It looks like that kind of chip in the pictures can be desoldered and replaced with bigger ones. It's still a hard task, probably not worth doing except for the "Everest condition" (people climb it because it's there, not to do anything of value up there), but I think it's possible.
  • Reply 10 of 13
    Who on earth would need more than 2GB on a travel computer anyway? 2GB is easily enough to run productivity tools.
  • Reply 11 of 13
    MarvinMarvin Posts: 15,310moderator
    The only mod I want to see is a modbook style mod but with an iphone-tech screen. I was using a MBP sitting on my lap today and I just wanted the display part of it. When I handed the laptop to someone else, I was just thinking how awkwardly shaped a laptop is.



    A laptop works fine on a desk but on the move, it's fairly impractical. The Macbook Air still has this limitation.



    People are already making pocket tablets like this nokia 810:



    http://www.nokia.co.uk/link?cid=PLAIN_TEXT_607323



    Technical Specifications



    Weight: 226 g

    Length: 72 mm

    Width: 128 mm

    Thickness: 14 mm



    Display



    High-resolution 4.13? WVGA display (800 x 480 pixels) with up to 65,000 colors



    Processor



    TI OMAP 2420, 400Mhz



    Memory



    DDR RAM 128MB

    Flash 256MB



    Storage



    Up to 2GB internal memory

    Support for compatible miniSD and microSD memory cards (with extender). Supports cards up to 8GB. (SD cards over 2GB must be SDHC compatible.)



    Operating Times*



    Battery: Nokia Battery BP-4L

    Continuous usage (display on, wireless LAN active): up to 4 hours

    Music playback: up to 10 hours

    Always online time: up to 5 days

    Standby time: up to 14 days



    Other characteristics



    Smooth slide with integrated QWERTY keyboard

    Built-in GPS receiver

    High quality stereo speakers and sensitive microphone

    High-resolution widescreen display

    Integrated desk stand

    Integrated VGA web camera

    HW key to lock touch screen and keys

    Ambient light sensor



    Connectivity



    WLAN standard: IEEE 802.11b/g

    Bluetooth specification v.2.0 . +EDR (profiles supported: HID, FTP, DUN, GAP, SPP, HSP, SAP and OPP)

    USB high speed for PC connectivity

    3.5 mm stereo headphone plug (Nokia AV Connector)



    Tablet OS: maemo Linux based OS2008

    Easy install for new applications, applets, and personalization

    Operating system updates available over the Internet



    Web Browsing



    Browser based on Mozilla technology with state-of-the-art web standard support including AJAX

    Page navigation with scrolling, panning or using hardware buttons, zooming in and out of web sites.

    Full desktop Adobe® Flash® 9 plugin, including video and audio streaming



    Media



    In-built media player for viewing and listening to downloaded, transfered or streamed media content and easy-on-device management of media library

    Direct access to shared media over Universal Plug and Play (UPnP)

    Supported video formats: 3GP, AVI, WMV, MP4, H263, H.264, MPEG-1, MPEG-4, RV (RealVideo)

    Supported audio formats: MP3, WMA, AAC, AMR, AWB, M4A, MP2, RA (RealAudio), WAV

    Supported playlist formats: M3U, PLS, ASX, WAX, WVX, WPL



    Communications



    Internet messaging and calling with video

    Effortless and automated presence and contacts application for centralizing communication tasks

    SIP support and interoperability with industry standard services



    Map



    Map application with pre-loaded maps including points of interest

    Premium services available on purchase including Wayfinder navigation



    E-mail



    Browser access to familiar webmail services

    E-mail application for personal e-mail usage with IMAP, STMP, and POP3 support



    Images



    Full-screen image viewing and slideshow functionality

    Supported Image formats: BMP, GIF, ICI, JPE, JPEG, PNG, TIF/TIFF, SVG, Tiny, WBMP



    RSS Reader



    Reader for subscribing, managing and keeping up-to date with web feeds

    Support for RSS 1.0/2.0 and Atom 1.0



    Utilities



    File manager

    PDF reader

    Clock

    Games: chess, blocks, mahjong and marbles

    Backup and restore



    Input methods



    HW keyboard, full screen finger keyboard and on-screen keyboard



    This is a different category as it's more of a larger iphone device but the people who actually have laptops that I know simply don't need the portability other than to take between home and work. For actual on the move stuff, the Macbook Air, doesn't really help because you still have to sit somewhere to use it and you simply wouldn't do anything processor intensive on the go so the speed it offers over competitors isn't needed.
  • Reply 12 of 13
    celcocelco Posts: 211member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by IAmMacUser View Post


    Who on earth would need more than 2GB on a travel computer anyway? 2GB is easily enough to run productivity tools.





    "640K ought to be enough for anybody." Bill Gates



    Bill is that you. Welcome to AI.
  • Reply 13 of 13
    What year did Bill say that? 640K is great for me, thats for sure! :P
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